A car for the rich and green

Originally published: February 18, 2010

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It’s inevitable really. Happens all the time. No sooner will I write my latest condemnation of the electric car than my inbox is full of angry emails, more than just a few proclaiming the many and wondrous virtues of the sporty two-door Tesla.

So adamant are these “The Tesla will do this” and “The Tesla will do that” that I expect one day to learn — from a true believer, of course — that the electrified little Lotus actually cures cancer and may yet be the breakthrough needed for peace throughout the Middle East.

Sarcasm skewering the logic of die-hard eco-weenies aside, Tesla’s reputation as a leader in electric propulsion is vastly greater than its actual corporate might (indeed, there have been reports the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is facing some serious financial hardship). Corporate giants such as General Motors and Nissan, to name but a few, have had to address criticism as to why such a small company could be so far ahead of them in the development of alternative-fuel automobiles. At the very least, the company’s reputation depends on whether the phantasmagorical claims attributed to the little runabout bear any resemblance to the truth.

The surprise is that some — more than a few, really — do. For instance, the claim that the 288-horsepower Tesla is as quick as any gasoline-fuelled sports car is no myth. Tesla claims a zero-to-96-kilometres-an hour acceleration time of 3.9 seconds for the bare-bones roadster and 3.7 seconds for the upgraded-with-more-torque (295 pound-feet) Sport version. I didn’t put the car to the stopwatch, but there’s little doubt it’s a spunky little devil. Thanks to its relatively light weight (1,237 kilograms) and the phenomenal low-end torque of its electric motor, the Tesla responds to jabs at the throttle like a thoroughbred Ferrari, jumping well ahead of traffic with a pace matched by few conventional automobiles. Like all electric cars, its performance at higher speeds isn’t quite as phantasmagoric (electric motors make their best power at low speeds and tend to fade as the revs increase), but it still moves with some alacrity, if not quite continuing the Ferrari-like theme. So chock one up for the Tesla.

Another arena in which the Tesla also excels is range. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and I really don’t know how it tests this), the Tesla is good for 244 miles of driving split 55/45 between city and urban driving. That would equal 390 kilometres of emissions-free driving here in the Great White Frozen North.

Of course, like such ratings by the EPA (and Transport Canada, it must be admitted) for conventional fuel mileage, the numbers are optimistic. But, considering my hooning about on the highway (where, unlike a gas-fuelled car, the Tesla is more profligate, in this case because it doesn’t use much regenerative braking), the Tesla did manage a decent range — about 220 klicks when cruising at a steady 120 km/h. And, if the energy usage gauge on the dash is correct, slowing things down to 100 km/h might have extended things to 300 almost kilometres. So, chock up another one for Tesla, right?

Well, mostly, but not quite.

One of the main reasons for the Tesla’s extraordinary range is that there is 53 kwH of lithium ion battery behind the passenger compartment; 6,831 little laptop batteries all wired up together, in fact. By comparison, Chevy’s upcoming Volt boasts but 16 kwH and the Nissan Leaf only 24. So the reason the Tesla can go farther is that it is simply willing to pack more lithium ion poundage than other electric car manufacturers (one of the byproducts, by the way, is that all that extra avoirdupois — almost 335 kg more than an Elise — seriously taxes the stock Lotus braking system, the Roadster S’s only performance failing). And, for the record, recharging that huge battery pack takes almost 30 hours on a typical 110-volt circuit, more than 12 hours on a conventional 220V system and about 3.5 hours with an upgraded 70-amp, 220-volt line.

Another reason the Roadster S achieves greater range than electric cars from more mainstream manufacturers is that Tesla is willing to tax its batteries more than, say, General Motors or Nissan. The Roadster offers four settings for battery usage from the basic “Standard” and “Range” — which both promote long battery life — to a “Performance” mode that allows one to drain almost all the battery’s charge (and thus get a longer range). The problem is that draining lithium ion batteries dramatically reduces their longevity. Both Nissan and GM, for instance, greatly reduce the operating range of their batteries in order to promote long life, but that does result in range deficiency compared with the Tesla.

Tesla doesn’t need to worry about such niceties since its clientele is preordained as early adopters willing to spend a lot of money to be green.

The car I drove, for instance, costs $164,250, putting it squarely in the rarefied snack bracket of the rich, multi-car owner. Even Toronto’s Tesla dealer, Hans Ulrud, notes that virtually all its roadster owners have conventionally fuelled cars.

Indeed, that dependence on the wealthy as its chosen clientele is both Tesla’s biggest strength and most significant weakness. That over-large price tag does mean that the Tesla’s quality and performance are all the company boasts. But it also means that to make the Roadster practical, one has to ante up for one of those 70-amp, 220V chargers. It also might mean frequent replacement of the car’s expensive batteries.

And, while the company’s claim that one of its customers even charges his Roadster with solar panels to be even more “green” does point to the commitment of its loyal following, what it doesn’t seem to realize is that apparent boast distances itself further from the hoi polloi for whom a conversion to electric propulsion must be both cheap and easy.

In the end, I came away very convinced of the Tesla’s bona fides. As a harbinger that electric cars will eventually replace all conventional gasoline-fuelled automobiles, I’m less convinced.